ProxyVote Plus

ISS and Glass Lewis operate primarily as research and advisory firms that publish standardized voting recommendations. Asset managers then either follow those recommendations or override them. ProxyVote Plus does not publish its own research or advocate for specific voting outcomes. It develops a custom voting policy for each client based on that manager's investment philosophy and stewardship goals, then executes the mechanical vote according to that policy. The distinction is between buying a generic policy and outsourcing the administration of your own.

The firm serves institutional investment managers — typically mid-sized boutiques, long-only equity funds, and registered investment companies — that want an active ownership program aligned with their specific investment approach but do not have the in-house headcount to run a proxy voting operation. Clients value the ability to codify their principles into a repeatable voting system without defaulting to a third-party advisor's house view.

The firm covers the full proxy voting workflow: developing a bespoke set of voting guidelines tailored to a manager's investment philosophy, receiving and processing proxy materials for all shareholder meetings across the portfolio, casting votes according to the agreed-upon policy, and delivering post-season reporting that documents vote outcomes and rationale. The service is administrative and operational, not advisory.

No. The firm builds and administers a voting policy defined by the client; it does not issue its own research or voting recommendations. This separation of policy determination from execution is central to the firm's value proposition and distinguishes it from research-driven proxy advisors that recommend specific votes.

In 2020, the SEC adopted amendments to proxy voting advice rules under the Investment Advisers Act, requiring greater disclosure around material conflicts of interest at proxy advisory firms and giving issuers more opportunity to review and respond to voting recommendations. Separately, the Department of Labor has reminded ERISA fiduciaries that they must independently evaluate proxy votes rather than default to a third-party advisor. Both developments create demand for infrastructure that operationalizes a manager's own voting policy.